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Bookplate inserted; p. 36 earmarked and text highlighted: “We have estimated that if income tax were cut by an average of 10 per cent on the $6,000 to $30,000 range, the loss of revenue would be of the order of $50 million. A 20 per cent cut would reduce revenues by $100 million. Australia raise a lower proportion of its revenues from indirect taxes on consumption than most other countries. A comparatively small increase in excise duties and sales taxes (estimated to raise between them $1400 million in the current year) would be sufficient to offset the loss in income tax receipts. We believe that the income tax structure should be revised at the earliest possible moment. It must be done eventually because the present income scales are so obviously tipped against enterprise, honest work and skill, the very attributes we should be encouraging. There will always be reasons why the time is never propitious to make less changes in the pattern of government finance, either in the manner of raising or in the manner of spending public moneys.” On p. 50 highlighted in pencil: “The removal of the means test has become a popular catch-cry associated in the minds of people living in straitened circumstances. In fact, the abolition of the means test would provide benefits mainly for people comfortably off. It would make more difficult the alleviation of the position of pensioners and others in real need.” P. 67 earmarked; additionally on pp. 102-103 earmarked and highlighted: “In the small space of two decades, Australia has risen from a society in comparative scarcity to one of general abundance, and it is clear that the best is yet to come. The basic political and economic principles which lie behind this extraordinary advance should not now be abandoned, mauled or put in reverse, no matter what party occupies the seats of government. The central core of liberalism is it faith in the individual, in his ability to look after himself and his right to fashion his own life according to his own lights. The undying hostility of liberalism is to authoritarian or paternalistic systems of government and therefore to political and economic policies which depend for their implementation on the increasing power of the State. The role of the State is not to determine how the individual shall live his life: it is to provide the opportunities and conditions under which the individual can make the most of himself and shape his own destiny. This over-riding concept provides the test which should be applied by liberals to the policies which they advocate, or, if in government, to those they are pursuing. The liberal must oppose the increasing disposition of government to interfere with the workings of the market mechanism, which provides the most effective means for determining the allocation of resources and the most economic pattern of production and distribution. On the other hand, he will strongly support the principle that the State should under-pin the weak. Also, in the modern era of technology and exploding urbanisation, the liberal will concede the need for governments to concern themselves most actively with the total physical environment in which the individual must live. Under true liberal policies, the economy will be loaded in favour of the enterprising, the hard-working, and those with skills of high value to the community, striving to climb the ladder of ambition. But at present, income tax scales are so steeply graded that it is uncommonly difficult for people to greatly improve their economic situation out of the product of their labour.” Loose note written in pencil between pp. 102 – 103 reads: “Geographical [indecipherable] issue [/] Commonwealth Treasury which has for many years been managed with greed which liberalism and federalism a great voice with the Socialists. Socialists believe as they do and must, that a well ordered society would be Government constructed. [indecipherable]. This does not prevent them from seeking control of the Senate so as to destroy the Government.”